Schindler family attorney responds to columnist
By Pat Anderson
Published: Friday, May 6, 2005
I read Vivek Thuppil's column concerning the Terri Schiavo case ("Republicans use Schiavo case for political advancement," The Triangle, April 29, p. 15). It makes for compelling reading, assuming it is fact-based.
However, as the Schindler family attorney for a number of years, I can tell you Mr. Thuppil's fact-assumptions are not accurate.
Consider these assumptions, for which there is factual support: Terri collapsed in February, 1990 of unknown reasons. She did not have a heart attack. Her tox screen was negative. No doctor ever diagnosed her with bulimia. She collapsed in the early morning hours on a Sunday morning, alone with Michael. They had a big argument on Saturday afternoon before he went to work, because she had spent $80 at the hairdresser.
In March, 1991, just 53 weeks after her collapse -- slightly more than a year -- a total-body bone scan revealed numerous traumatic injuries to her skeleton, including a fractured lumbar vertebra and an unusual injury to her right thigh bone. The radiologist who read the scan concluded all of her skeletal injuries were presumably of traumatic origin.
Under oath, he said the right thigh injury could only have been caused by a sharp blow or kick. He also testified that these types of injuries were visible on a bone scan for 12 to 18 months. That is, on March 5, 1991, the date the bone scan was done, her injuries would have been sustained sometime in the period from September, 1989 to February, 1990.
During his testimony to a medical malpractice jury in November, 1992, Michael testified that he intended to honor his wedding vows (he did not tell the jury he was dating at least two other women at the time) and intended to take care of Terri the rest of his life. He presented an expert who testified that, in fact, Terri would have a normal life span. Michael did not tell that jury that Terri would rather be dead than disabled, curiously enough. Incidentally, contrary to Mr. Thuppil's assumption, traumatic brain injury is not a terminal disease. She had no terminal disease. Terri was simply brain-damaged.
About three months after that testimony, Michael got the money from the medical malpractice case and stopped speaking to the Schindlers or allowing them any information about their daughter. From time to time, he even cut off their right to visit their daughter.
About seven months after that testimony, in June or July, 1993, Terri developed an infection, and Michael ordered her caregivers to withhold antibiotics from her. Later that year, in November, 1993, he gave a sworn deposition in which he said he had done so at a doctor's suggestion and he expected her to die of the infection. This testimony was just one year after he had told that malpractice jury he intended to care for Terri the rest of his life, so we can conclude from this that Michael is capable of lying under oath.
In that same November, 1993 deposition, Michael said he could withhold antibiotics for an infection, but in speaking of removing her feeding tube, he "could not do that to Terri."
In about 1995, Michael began living with Jodi Centonze. He had other girlfriends, but this romance was serious. They had two children together, even though he was married to Terri.
Assume if you will that everything I have written above is taken from the records of the case (of which it is) and apply your own common sense in analyzing the following question: Did Michael and his two relatives fabricate Terri's wish to be dead, because he wanted to "get on with his life" as you call it and she just would not die on her own?
Pat Anderson was the Schindler family attorney, parents of Terri Schiavo, from April 2001 to September 2004.
Link to Terri's bone scan http://www.terrisfight.org/images/bonescan.jpg
http://www.thetriangle.org/media/paper689/news/2005/05/06/EdOp/Schindler.Family.Attorney.Responds.To.Columnist-948239.shtml
By Caleb Moline | New Voices
Posted May 7, 2005
The cliché is true: America is a melting pot of sorts, where people from all cultures and ways of life are accepted as equals. We all enjoy the same rights and the same treatment by our government. Most important, we all have the freedom of speech, endowed to us by the First Amendment.
This is one of the most important rights granted to us by the Constitution. It allows us to discuss ideas and broaden our horizons. In this environment, intellectualism thrives and allows humans to accomplish great things. When we are allowed to speak freely, it helps people understand where we are coming from and aids us in building a better future.
In a "New Voices" essay in this space two weeks ago titled "Religion vs. Politics," 22-year-old William Niemann, a medic in Kuwait with the Army's 514th Medical Company, used the Terri Schiavo case as an example of religion creeping into the lives of citizens. Niemann explained that the issue was debated only on the grounds of whether or not God approved of removing her feeding tube. But this is hardly the case. In fact, the Schiavo case was solved by the government in a manner that was devoid of any religious matter at all -- Pinellas Circuit Judge George W. Greer found that legally, not religiously, Michael Schiavo had the legal authority to have the plug pulled on his wife.
However, it does perplex me that Niemann found debate, the relation of ideas, the very cornerstone of our culture, "disturbing." Moreover, all people should be entitled to their opinions and allowed to exercise their freedom of speech. When a life-or-death issue arises, all matters of opinion should be taken into account -- and, yes, this includes religion!
Niemann pointed out that we live in a democracy, and that is exactly my point. Had we lived in a theocracy, there would have been no debate regarding the Schiavo case. That there was open discussion about the Schiavo case only proves that religion and politics can mingle without crossing the abominable line of separation of church and state.
Caleb Moline, 17, of Clermont is homeschooled, and dual-enrolled as a college student at Valencia Community College.
FV SAYS: Terri's barbaric, wrongful death is still disturbing and unacceptable to many Americans. What happened to Terri and her blood relatives will not be forgotten. Having never met her, I miss her and always will. Terri changed my life.
